The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has overruled an attempt by German regulators to allow Deutsche Telekom, the former state-run phone monopoly, to ban competitors from having access to its new high-speed broadband network. The ECJ sided with the European Commission, which had sued Germany over a 2006 national law that granted Deutsche Telekom a “holiday” from European Union regulations for its 3 billion euro ($4.5 billion) fiber optic network.

“This judgment is an important precedent for telecom regulation across Europe,” the commission said in a statement. “The judgment will help the European Commission and national regulatory authorities to promote, independently of political pressure, effective competition on the telecoms markets.”